LoRaWAN networks might be a technology that could facilitate extreme energy-efficient operation while offering great capacity for suburban and rural area deployment, but this can be a challenging task for a network administrator. Constraints that deform the trade-off triangle of coverage, scalability and energy efficiency need to be overcome. The scope of this study is to review the limitations of the LoRaWAN protocol in order to summarize and assess the crucial factors that affect communication performance, related to data rate allocation, bidirectional traffic and radio spectrum utilization. Based on the literature, these factors correspond mostly to configurable payload transmission parameters, including transmission interval, data rate allocation, requirement for acknowledgements and retransmission. In this work, with simulation experiments, we find that collision occurrences greatly affect channel occupancy. In particular, it was evaluated that collision occurrence is increasingly affected by transmission intervals, which have the most significant negative impact on packet delivery rate (PDR). We then validated that clustering of end nodes in the vicinity of a gateway, taking into account distance and transmission settings, can improve network scalability. This can assure distribution of the total transmission time to end nodes with respect to application-related QoS requirements. Following this clustering approach, we achieved a PDR greater than 0.90 in a simulation setting with 6000 end nodes in a 10 km coverage.

In the present work, a methodology for the low-cost crafting of an interactive layered dashboard is proposed. Our aim is that the tangible surface be constructed using domestic materials that are easily available in every household. Several tests were performed on different capacitive materials before the selection of the most suitable one for use as a capacitive touch sensor. Various calibration methods were evaluated so that the behavior of the constructed capacitive touch sensors is smooth and reliable. The layered approach is achieved by a menu of few touch buttons on the left side of the dashboard. Thus, various different layers of content can be projected over the same construction, offering extendibility and ease of use to the users. For demonstration purposes, we developed an entertaining plus an educational application of projection mapping for the pervasive and interactive projection of multimedia content to the users of the presented tangible interface. The whole design and implementation approach are thoroughly analyzed in the paper and are presented through the illustration and application of various multimedia layers over the dashboard. An evaluation of the final construction proves the feasibility of the proposed work.

In this publication we investigate in depth the design, architecture and implementation of a bio and cultural guiding system with augmented capabilities. Our platform will be able to provide a flexible and user-friendly application for smart mobile devices with Android OS, which will be able to provide to the user the ability to discover nearby places of interest such as museums, archeological sites, religious sites, natural beauty sites, etc. In addition, our application is able to offer users an enhanced, comprehensive and augmented tour experience, based on visual and audio smartphone services, using asynchronous and real-time user–server communication mechanisms, thus eliminating the need for a human tour guide operator in cases of a remote area, guiding service cost or unavailable time slot. The proposed platform integrates visual overlays, audio narration, Geolocation services, and cloud-based data management to enable users to explore cultural, historical, and natural points of interest without the need for a human tour guide. A modular, layered system architecture is developed, combining Firebase Realtime Database, RESTful web services, OpenStreetMap-based navigation, and Android-native components to ensure scalability, flexibility, and real-time responsiveness. UML modeling, including class and sequence diagrams, is employed to formally describe system structure and behavior, while a mathematical data model validates the consistency of the underlying database schema. The implementation demonstrates how AR guiding systems can enhance spatial understanding, accessibility, and user engagement while supporting sustainable tourism practices and efficient destination management. The results indicate that the proposed solution is technically feasible, user-centered, and adaptable to diverse bio-cultural contexts, contributing to the advancement of intelligent, inclusive, and sustainable digital tourism platforms.